Midterm Evaluation (7)
What happened next was obvious. Even low-rank demonic beasts were more than ordinary cadets could handle — and those things hadn't merely been roaming in packs; there had been an intermediate-rank beast among them, of all things. Even if the goal was evaluation, wasn't this going too far?
As if in agreement with my thoughts, I could feel the clamor of protest welling up from the wounded cadets around me.
"Th-This is all wrong!! An intermediate-rank beast!!"
"My arm!! Somebody treat it, hurry..!!"
"No.. if I fail this evaluation too, then I.."
A pathetic noble shaking his head in stubborn denial of reality. A wretched cadet clutching his own arm, weeping tears of blood from the pain. A commoner drowning in helplessness, convinced he had failed his family's expectations. Hell was already reflected in their eyes, and their whole bodies were steeped in fear and bewilderment.
But who was there to blame, really? They had heard the beasts were gathering and gotten greedy. They had gone along with the plan to wipe every last one of them out in a single stroke. They had been arrogant enough to assume they would be the ones playing predator — even though they were the ones being hunted.
The ones who recognized their own mistakes had fallen silent after that, but naturally, a crowd like this was never made up entirely of saints. There would always be those who shoved their own blunders to the back of their minds and wanted only to pour the feelings of the moment out onto someone, anyone. And so their outrage and resentment began, quite naturally, to discharge toward one member of the group.
'If only he hadn't insisted on leading the way..'
'I never wanted to go in the first place.. sob..'
The cadet who had helped spearhead the beast subjugation was glaring daggers at his own friend, while here and there I caught sight of others weeping helplessly over friends who had been gravely wounded.
Cruelly, the dark emotions kept pooling together, and before long they converged on a single person.
'He.. he was the first one to charge forward, wasn't he..?'
'He's our leader.. isn't he..? Doesn't that make him responsible?'
'He's the one who made that call..!'
Whispers like these circled the cadets' ears, and it did not take long for their gazes to turn razor-sharp. I noticed those stares as well, and turned my eyes back to Albert, who was still slumped in front of me.
The head that had always been held high with confidence now hung low, as if weighed down by a heavy stone, and those broad shoulders that had always squared themselves no matter the situation had caved inward like some invalid's. As if clamping his mouth shut weren't enough, he bit down hard on his lip, and it trembled mercilessly with some emotion — fury or guilt, I couldn't tell which.
His state seemed to be deteriorating by the moment, and I was just about to act on the thought of mixing him a calming draught to hand over — when people came bursting out of the brush beside us, and I had no choice but to freeze right where I stood. Because everyone who should never have gathered in one place had just appeared, all at once.
"Uh.. what in the world happened here?"
"..!! Anyone needing treatment, this way, quickly!!"
"What.. what could have happened..?"
There was the Imperial Princess, genuinely unable to make sense of the situation; the Saintess, her eyes already darting to the patients as she threw herself into treatment; and Isabella, straining to piece together the scene as fast as she could.
"..Is that.. true?"
"Whether you believe it or not is at your discretion, Your Highness."
"Ugh.. you!! You're looking down on me, aren't you?!"
"Not particularly."
Ignoring the Princess as she fumed about being lied to, I walked over to Isabella, who was still turning something over in her head.
"Lady Isabella."
"Ah.. y-yes.. yes!"
"What is it you're pondering so deeply?"
Isabella hesitated for a moment, her lips fidgeting, before lowering her head and speaking up.
"..Doesn't something seem off to you..?"
"Off how, if I may ask?"
"If an intermediate-rank beast really appeared.. then what were the professors doing all this time.."
"Ah."
Of course the professors would know. That an intermediate-rank beast was utterly beyond the likes of us. And yet the very people presumed to have been observing this entire situation had never once appeared before Albert. In that case, only two possibilities remained.
"First, that this, too, was simply part of the evaluation."
"That can't be it.. the professors wouldn't want this many cadets failing out.."
"And if not that... then the professors never saw that beast's appearance coming at all."
"..Doesn't that make even less sense, though..?"
She had a point. However ordinary any given professor might be, they were people who had passed the Academy's screening. Their knowledge was vast beyond measure, or their strength was exceptional. Serving as a professor at the Academy was itself proof of that — and such people had failed to predict a variable that appeared, of all times, during the evaluation? A mouse would stand better odds of threading a needle's eye. Which meant this, too, had been part of the evaluation all along..
"Wh-What do we do now!! This is all your fault!!"
"Th-That's right!!"
"Take responsibility, Albert!!"
"...."
The shouts that came crashing in out of nowhere shattered my thoughts, and I reflexively whipped my head around. Several cadets had planted themselves in front of Albert, who still sat slumped in dejection, and the rest of the students, as if echoing their sentiment, pressed a silent weight down upon him. They blamed Albert without a shred of remorse, and Albert, for his part, silently absorbed their resentment. It had been his own misjudgment as head of the alliance; he had been the one to step out ahead of everyone and lead them — and so Albert believed the duty of hearing their grievances fell squarely on his own shoulders. Naturally, the cadets watching took his silence for an admission of guilt and began spewing whatever came to mind.
"And what exactly do you think you're doing?"
Of course she wasn't about to let that slide. From where she stood, this could only look plain wrong. Even now, I'd wager the notion that the many must never persecute the one was nailed firmly into her head. The cadets who had been blaming him couldn't carelessly open their mouths either — her status saw to that. Just how many people in this Empire could tell the Imperial Princess to butt out?
"Yo-Your Highness.. that's not—"
"Do you have any idea how cowardly what you're doing is?"
"No.. he was the one commanding us..!"
"And didn't all of you go along with him?"
One cadet worked up the nerve to push back, but at the words the Princess spat out as if testing them, their expressions curdled something awful. After all, the camp demanding they hunt the beasts down had been overwhelmingly larger, and they had approved of it too. They knew that fact full well and had done their best to ignore it — but apparently it had never occurred to them that the Princess knew it as well.
"You agreed readily enough back then, and now you come crawling back to shift the blame.."
"W-Well.."
"Isn't that just a touch shameless?"
"...."
"I find myself doubting you're honorable members of the Empire at all."
As she pressed on in a tone that denied their very honor, the bewilderment seeping into their eyes was plain for anyone to see. With that final remark, the Princess turned away as though thoroughly let down and walked off with quiet grace, leaving behind a scattering of aggrieved, tear-streaked faces and cadets visibly relieved they'd had the sense not to stick their necks out.
As I studied their hollowed-out expressions and rummaged around for something to snack on, the Princess began drifting slowly toward me, and I instinctively stumbled back a step.
"..? Why are you avoiding me?"
"..Is there some business you have with me?"
"Yes. There is. With you."
Saying so, she closed the distance until she stood right in front of me — and her next action left me utterly dumbstruck.
"..I'm.. sorry."
She had bowed her head and apologized. To me. ..The Imperial Princess of the Empire, to a nameless commoner.
"Wh-Wha—?!"
"Th-The Princess bowed her head?"
"H-Huh.. wh..what?"
Gasps of shock and wonder burst out of several of us, myself included — and Isabella and the Saintess were no exception.
"..Did Her Highness just apologize.. right now?"
"To think she'd go this far.."
Isabella's enormous eyes had grown somehow even larger, while the Saintess, looking as if she knew something, pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed. And I.. found myself at a loss for words. No matter how I turned it over, I hadn't done a single thing worth being apologized to for. If anything, I was the one who might be punished for laying a wound on the Imperial Princess's body. And yet she had apologized to me openly, in front of all these cadets — and in front of the professors who might well be watching even now. However I looked at it, there was no reason to go this far..?
"..What.. exactly are you apologizing for..?"
"..Are you really asking because you don't know?"
"Yes."
"Hah.. my words and my conduct toward you that day."
"..Was there anything in them worth an apology?"
When she looked at me like what kind of person are you?, it stung a little. I wasn't used to a girl like that giving me that look.
"It's true that I held ill feelings toward you, and..."
"That's why I treated you so harshly.."
"And for believing the rumors and judging you so carelessly.. I apologize for that as well."
"I'm really.. truly sorry."
For her, she must have agonized over this apology something fierce before she could bring herself to make it.. but honestly, I was a bit flustered. Just like that? Was there any reason in the world for her attitude to flip so completely?
"..Um.. an answer, perhaps..?"
"Ah, my apologies."
"R-Right.. so..!"
"May I ask you just one thing?"
"Uh.. yes..?"
"What brings about this sudden apology?"
"W-Well, um.."
She wound a lock of hair beside her ear around and around her finger, and refused to go on — which only made me all the more curious. Just then, I heard soft footsteps drifting gently toward us, and before I knew it, the Saintess, Hildegard, had slipped up beside us and supplied the reason herself.
"It's nothing much, really. I told her about the state you were in."
"H-Hilde!!"
"There's nothing to be embarrassed about, Your Highness."
"Exactly.. what did you tell her..?"
What on earth could she have been told, that she would bend her pride like this and apologize first? The state of my body the Saintess could have spoken of was.. uh..
"Have you forgotten that your shoulders were scorched raw that day?"
"Ah."
"That wound you took sparring with Her Highness? I merely mentioned in passing that it must have hurt beyond belief."
When I turned my gaze back to the Princess, she couldn't quite meet my eyes — whether out of guilt or embarrassment, I couldn't say. She still looked a touch sulky, as if apologizing to me at all rankled her... But deciding that answering an apology was simply good manners, I stepped up to her, let the corner of my mouth curl up ever so slightly, and spoke.
"Could I take it in money, or something else instead?"
The Saintess beside me, in perfect contrast to my own, made a spectacularly twisted face.